Tree Removal in Northlake, IL

Northlake’s branch pickup program has a line in it that costs people money: “No contractor cuttings will be picked up.” The rule covers trees and branches cut by a privately contracted company, or by anyone the property owner hired. Neither qualifies. That puts the wood from any tree removal Northlake residents pay for squarely back on them.

So a tree company can give you a cheap number and leave the wood at the curb for the city. You are the one who finds out it is not going anywhere. Every job we do in Northlake includes hauling — wood and brush, off the property, gone the same day.

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What The City Does Do

Northlake plants parkway trees twice a year, generally at a resident’s request. Call Public Works on 708-562-0940 to find out what is available and ask for one. The city prunes parkway trees for safety, health, uniformity and appearance. If you are choosing what to ask for, the Morton Arboretum keeps species notes for northern Illinois parkways. Branch pickup for resident-cut material runs the first Monday of each month, April through November. Branches must stay under eight feet long and eight inches in diameter. Larger limbs go into sixteen-inch logs.

The Tree Rules In Title 7, Chapter 3

Planting anything in a city parkway needs written permission from the Director of Public Works, under Section 7-3-2. That covers any tree, shrub or woody plant. The city may pull an unauthorized planting at the resident’s expense. Section 7-3-3 restricts parkway species to an authorized list or others approved by the Director. Under 7-3-10, no shrubs or hedges belong on the parkway at all. Existing ones must stay under two feet.

Section 7-3-9 is the one that matters if you are building. It sets construction procedures around trees on city property across nine subsections. Those cover excavation distance, tunneling, backfill, stockpiling and equipment operation. Contractors who ignore that section are the reason it exists.

Three Square Miles Along Addison Creek

Northlake’s own hazard plan puts it plainly. The city encompasses three square miles along Addison Creek. Inside that sit 193 acres of 100-year floodplain and 236 acres of 500-year. FEMA identifies forty repetitive loss properties. Disaster declarations run from 1973 through 2013. Five of those years each caused roughly two million dollars in damage: 1997, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2013.

Forty repetitive-loss properties in three square miles is a lot. For trees, it means the same thing every time. Root plates spend part of every year in saturated ground. The canopy above them gets heavier each season. That combination fails in wind, not in drought. It is behind most of the tree removal Northlake sees after a summer storm.

A Post-War City That Went Up Fast

Northlake took shape in the late 1930s. The Midland Development Company bought a tract at North Avenue and Wolf Road. Wartime housing near a Buick defense plant filled it out through the 1940s. The city incorporated in 1949 with about 3,000 people. Expansion came fast through the fifties and sixties. The name comes from the two roads that meet at its western border — North Avenue and Lake Street.

Housing that went up in one decade gets planted in one decade. The trees that came with those subdivisions are now all in the same part of their life. That is why work here comes in clusters by street. Tree removal Northlake needs tends to arrive three houses at a time for that reason.

Tree Removal Northlake: What We Do

• Removals with complete haul-away — the city will not take contractor cuttings
• Trimming and deadwood removal on the mature post-war stock
• Stump grinding
• Lot clearing, including work around the Centerpoint Preserve edges
• Emergency storm work, 24 hours

What Tree Removal Northlake Includes

Address and what the tree is doing. Ask us straight out what leaves the property. Ask everyone else you get a quote from, too. In Northlake it matters more than it does most places.

708-424-5885 · Cook County service area · nearby: Stone Park, Melrose Park, Berkeley.